﻿Obedience: Tips & Games﻿

This NEW addition to the web site has been added to share positive training games and exercises for obedience. It is up to us as trainers to make obedience fun for the dog. I was able to make obedience fun for my Border Collie Kaffee when we could not do agility by using tugging, balls, and very high value treats. Kaffee has always smiled and loved obedience and still goes into the obedience practice ring on his own with a huge smile on his face. Kaffee has his UDX3 and OM5. He also has earned 15 High in Trial and 17 High Combined (Open and Utility). He currently has 83 OTCH points.

NEW: Teaching Puppies and Your Dog How to Enjoy Finding Scented Articles. Many dogs have trouble with the scent article exercise in Utility. I have found that this fun 'FIND IT" game builds value for finding an object (which you scent); the dogs learn to love this game. I have done this with Myst and she has always done well in her Utility scent article work. Now doing it with 6 month old Beckett and he loves this game and finds the hidden article each time.​

How I Taught the Dumbbell Retrieve: Learning from some of the best trainers in agility and obedience I have learned to train without harsh methods such as an ear pinch. As Susan Garrett always reminds us, these harsh methods come back at some time with our dogs in many forms (loss of interest in the work; lackluster performances; dropping dumbbell; or lack of confidence by dog and probably a lack of trust in us as trainers. Laura Romanick who trained and learned from Bob Bailey many of her newer approaches to training obedience has been a wonderful trainer, coach and mentor for me. AND of course Susan Garrett's training methods continue to inspire me. Both of these excellent trainers warn of even a negative reinforcer such as a verbal "opps." So many examples of how these very minor negatives create a lack of confidence in many dogs.

In this series you will see how I trained both Myst (who now shows in Utility and is working on her UDX) and my puppy, Beckett who quickly learned how to happily hold the dumbbell, and bring it back to me coming into a correct front position. __________________________________________________________________________

﻿How I Taught The Utility Scent Discrimination ﻿This advanced obedience exercise involves the selection of the handler’s article from among the other articles by scent alone and the prompt delivery of the correct article to the handler. This link discusses and shows how I taught Myst scent discrimination. She started as a puppy with a fun game. When she was taught to actually find the scented articles, she progressed very quickly and right from the start was confident, successful and HAPPY.

NEW: When I got my new puppy, Beckett, in July 2016 I started teaching him nosework when he was 10 weeks old. I am always looking for ways to help my dogs learn and especially a puppy so he does not need to do a lot of running. This link now included yet another fun way to teach scent work and scent article discrimination. We progressed and played this fun scent game slowly and by the time Beckett was one year old he was confidently finding the correct metal or leather article from a pile of 6-8 unscented articles.

_________________________________________________________________________﻿﻿Using Balance Discs for Teaching Obedience and Rally﻿﻿Balance discs are fun ways to teach dogs skills that are important in obedience: the about turn in heeling, figure 8 in heeling, focused heeling, left about turn, the Utility glove retrieve especially the stand back for glove #3, the turn for scent discrimination in Utility, and for the many exercises in Rally.__________________________________________________________________________Go Outs for UtilityGo Outs are one of the most challenging exercises in Utility. The principle features of this exercise are that the dog goes away from the handler to the opposite end of the ring, stops when told, jump as directed and return to the handler. There are two primary ways to teach go outs: retreive based work and touch based jobs.

Laura Romanik has created one of the most comprehensive methods for teaching the Utility GO OUT. I worked with Laura on this when teaching Myst after struggling with this with my OTCH dog Kaffee. Visit Laura's web site for her amazing book, "GO BOP" http://lauraromanik.com/index.html

__________________________________________________________________________Tips for Successfully Showing in Obedience:A few tips that I have learned on my journey to putting an OTCH on my first obedience dog, Kaffee and working with the Masters about how to be successful in the obedience ring.